The gayageum, a 6th century Korean instrument with 12 or 21 strings. Here, Luna Lee covers the rockin' version of Mary Had a Little Lamb with a flair that would make Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan proud.
 Helen Frankenthaler, 1956 Copyright Gordon Parks/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images. My friend Francine is selecting paint colors for a room in her house. So what?Well, this endeavor is a little more interesting and artistic than the usual viewing of Home Depot's paint chip catalog. Francine began by writing a kind of paint color selection poem on Facebook and inviting feedback. Colour plains… Pure White Citron Matisse Blue Frankenthaler, Matisse, Rothko by Francine Gutwilik What a wonderful concept, I thought -- anchoring the colors in our homes to a favorite artist's signature palette. I proceeded to look up artist Helen Frankenthaler and found the photograph above. Even more interesting! :) In a Winnipeg Free Press article (http://bit.ly/1ffkWtk) Sean Quigley reveals that his band's name Bold as Lions is derived from Proverbs 28:1, "The wicked flee when no one pursues but the righteous are as bold as lions." I confess that I learned that verse from the Coen brother's movie True Grit as "The wicked flee when no one pursues..." That's the problem with learning everything from the movies - they leave some important parts out. :)  I was feeling a little anxious see, when I heard a voice deep inside saying, "Everybody in Casablanca has problems. Yours may work out." And I felt much better.
 I wasn't feeling so self-assured when I heard a little voice inside of me that said, "Well I stand up next to a mountain, chop it down with the edge of my hand." And suddenly I felt like I could do it too.
 The Women's Final. My wife and I had great seats for this. So close we could lean over and whisper tips to the Jones team. Which is the real reason they won. : )  Today I finished a three-part "Neil Young Immersion Experience", flipping the last page of his autobiographical Waging Heavy Peace.
The first part of the NYIE was a multi-media four-Friday edutainment event hosted by music historian John Einerson in McNally Robinson Bookseller's Community Classroom. It came complete with a "Harvest Moon" dinner accompanied by a local musician. That was a year ago and led to NYIE parts 2 & 3 -- the concert and book. Let me be clear - while I like Neil Young's music, I'm not any kind of groupie or fanboy. The NYIE was just something different, interesting and connected for my wife and I to experience together. While attending the class, we decided it would be fun to see Young live on his upcoming Winnipeg tour date. After the class and concert, I guess Santa cataloged me as a NY guy and left the book in my stocking. So what did I take from all this? It can be summed up with a quote from page 484 of his book (yes, anything Young does is intense so of course the book is 500 pages). "I've always been told that what I am doing is right. Maybe it isn't. Maybe just some of it is. I need to dig deep and discover some things along the way. How do I avoid being short with those I love and respect? How do I try to make people feel good about what they are doing for and with me? How can I respect others' tastes while retaining my own? This is the knowledge I'm searching for. I can remember so many times in my life when I have hurt others and hurt myself. I really need to find a way to change those patterns for good." You see, what I admire most about Neil Young is his dogged determination. Right from his earliest years playing in Winnipeg, he had nothing but bloody-minded focus on his goals. Here, he formed a band, practiced constantly, attended school rarely, performed everywhere, and cut a record. In no time, finding the local scene confining, he split for Toronto. There he struggled but met strategic people, including Stephen Stills and soon followed their path to L.A. From there, his rise was meteoric with Buffalo Springfield then Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. In 1970 at age 25, he wrote Ohio which became an anthem of the anti-war movement and perhaps a generation. Along the way, many were left behind including a Winnipeg bandmate whose mother forbade him to hit the road with the band. Left behind like all of us who take the safe, predictable road every day long after we leave the nest. Ironically, Young yearns to undo the damage from his early days; the damage most of us are too afraid to risk in the first place. Fascinating. |
 Author:
|
RSS Feed